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Game No. 40

Posted Jan 8, 2012
by Aaron Portzline
| 0 comments

Defenseman Grant Clitsome called it the longest 85 seconds of his life. After Clitsome cleared a puck over the glass in the Blue Jackets' zone (delay of game), he headed to the penalty box with the Jackets clinging to a 1-0 and the Los Angeles Kings' goaltender pulled for an extra skater, giving them a 6-on-4 advantage.

The sad realities of this season had to creep into the minds of a few players, certainly they did to those watching at home. The late-game losses. The blown leads after two periods. The penalty kill struggles, especially on the road.

But the Blue Jackets treated the final 1:25 like they had the first 58:35. Relying heavily on goaltender Curtis Sanford, and blocking a slew of shots before they reached the net, the Blue Jackets earned a 1-0 win over the Kings today before 18,118 in Staples Center.

“Curtis was outstanding, stopped a lot of shots,” Blue Jackets coach Scott Arniel said. “But I have to give a lot of credit to our team. We blocked a lot of shots, the penalty kill did a great job.

“We did give up shots, but we took away any sort of backdoor type of things. When there were rebounds, we cleared them out.”

Sanford, who made 31 saves, earned the sixth shutout of his NHL career, the first since Dec. 28, 2008. He made 12 saves in the third period and stopped 16 shots when the Blue Jackets were short-handed.

It was the Blue Jackets' first shutout of the season, his first since Feb. 22, 2010, a span of 63 games.

“It felt great out there tonight,” said Sanford, who is 6-7-3 on an 11-24-5 club. “A lot of the stuff that (goaltending coach Ian) Clarke and I have been working on is starting to come out now. I’m starting to reap the benefits of the hard work.

“Once again the guys allowed me to see the puck. There were lots of blocked shots (20) by us, too, including some huge blocked shots on the penalty kill.”

The only goal was scored by Clitsome at 11:23 of the second period, his fourth of the season.

Derick Brassard, back among the top six, made a nifty cross-zone pass to Clitsome, who creeped in through the left side of the zone and one-timed Brassard's feed inside the near post before Kings goaltender Jonathan Quick could cover.

That was all the Jackets needed, but the third period was an adventure.

As the final seconds ticked away in the second, Sammy Pahlsson was nailed for tripping (legit) and cross-checking (weak), giving the Kings four minutes of power play time on fresh ice at the start of the third.

Wait. It got worse. At 3:23 of the third, defenseman Marc Methot was boxed for slashing, giving the Kings 37 second with a 5-on-3.

“I almost think sometimes it’s easier to protect a lead when you’re on the PK,” said Jackets winger R.J. Umberger. “You can ice the puck. You don’t try to get too cute. Tonight the PK was clicking, we were getting a lot of pressure and blocking a lot of shots.”

With 1:25 to play, Clitsome hurriedly cleared the puck from deep in his own zone, near the goal line. It didn't draft glass, though, instead sailing into the crowd.

"To me, that's the worst thing that can happen to you," Clitsome said. "And then you watch the rest of the game just hoping it doesn't come back to bite you."

Side dishes:

-- Ryan Russell made his NHL debut on the third line with center Sammy Pahlsson and right winger Derek Dorsett. Russell led the Blue Jackets with four blocks, but the line combined for seven hits, five blocks and won 12 of 19 faceoffs.

-- Kings G Jonathan Quick was very good, too. He had 17 saves on 18 shots. Crazy stat: the Kings have scored two goals or less in 32 of their 42 games.

-- The last shutout for the Blue Jackets was Feb. 22, 2010, vs. Nashville. Steve Mason had 20 saves on that night.

-- The Kings have been shutout five times this season.

-- The Blue Jackets play Anaheim at 8 p.m. on Sunday, looking for their first back-to-back road wins since late last season - March 12 at Carolina and 19 at Minnesota.

-- RW Cam Atkinson did not play in AHL Springfield's 5-4 shootout win over Connecticut tonight. He has a mild hand injury, according to a Springfield spokesperson.

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